Do you have a male or female betta? Male bettas tend to be territorial and hostile to other male bettas, and other fish might nip on their long flowy fins. If your betta is a female, you could try keeping her in a "Female Betta Sorority" where she could be kept with other female bettas. The females would eventually start a pecking order with a dominant female, but a female betta sorority all depends on your certain betta's personality and the bettas' reaction to each other. Betta Sororities are best when there are at least 3 bettas to establish a pecking order.

I have heard ghost shrimp do fine with most fish because they tend to stick to the bottom of the tank and they look translucent. But in my opinion, they look kinda scary.

I've heard of someone keeping corys successfully with bettas, I'd suggest going that route It may still eat the shrimp, since bettas are hardcore carnivores.

I have found a link that has a list and description of fish that get along well with bettas. (Link is not visible to guests. Please register to view.) .

All the reserach I've done speaks of bettas "tolerating" other species. Nowhere does it say that it improves their life in any way. I decided to "allow my daughter" to redo Noodle's tank (which means she picked things out and watched) instead of buying him friends. He is still in his 3.5 but now has lots of live plants, a snazzy background and a more natural ornament. BUT the idea of a tropical community tank had taken over my mind. Today I went out and bought a 15 gallon since it was so cheap and I can house a few extra fish, we set it up with tons and tons of plants (I wish I were better at aquascaping). I put in four mystery snails (I had no idea how cute and active these guys are!) which according to my research barely, barely contribute to bioload. I took a look at ghost shrimp but yeah, as sparkly said- they're scary. According to the LFS employee, who actually seemed pretty knowledgable, I can have 6 tetra, 4-6 mollies or platys and no more than three cories. These seems like A LOT of fish. Some online guidelines agree with this and some have fewer fish. I have 150gph right now (established filter). I'm going to head back later and pick up the fish. Here are a couple of pics.

   They escape!!?? Can they squeeze by the filter?? There is about 1/4" open around the filter....
Doing tons of last minute research, no corys as they need an acid P.H. I want some kind of catfishy/pleco thing even though I'll have to upgrade as it grows. (I am already imagining how awesome a 55 gallon tropical tank would be.. ) According to aqadvisor.com the tank would be a wee bit overstocked with a pleco or bristlenose but they also say I have way more filtration then I need so now I'm debating. I would also be doing weekly changes unless someone tells me this is a "no-no" for tropicals...

edit- You can tell I am a newb with snails: I assumed they were hungry and wanted to feed them-as there are four snails I broke an algae wafrer into four pieces and gave it to them. They found the pieces and sat on them for about two hours during which time I assumed they were, you know, consuming them. Now they are "done" and the wafer bits appear unchanged. Lesson learned, snails eat very very little.

On the subject of snails, two days ago I gave my little guys a slice of courgette/zuchinni and they are still eating at it! It is so cute, as they just gang pile on whatever veg I happen to put in So don't worry if they spend ages eating Cheri.... I'm debating on getting apple snails maybe some day....

I'm not sure on the water changes for tropical, I think, it's once every 2 weeks? But do double check this, I am not 100% sure.

With Betta's all I know about those in community tanks, is to add them last Otherwise they establish too much territory, I believe?

Looking forward to the pictures

Ack! That's what mine are doing! I thought the big one was trying to eat/kill the baby!

Is this pleco going to starve? We have no algae yet though I'm trying to grow some and the little guy wont eat wafers, in fact he wont leave the wall or the driftwood, doesn't seem very bright. I'm concerned he hasn't eaten at all in the three days I've had him.

I believe pleco's can also eat some veg, like courgette/zuchinni, maybe you could give that a go as well Cheri?

One Platy disappeared. Just completley gone, no trace! Otherwise they seem to be doing ok. I'm still getting used to them...they are so shy compared to my goldies. I am rethinking having a larger tropical tank, it's pretty but I don't love them like my other fish.

 When you decide to set up a huge tropical community tank, you could try getting a group of otocinclus catfish. They have cute puppy dog eyes and are similar to plecos when it comes to eating algae. (Link is not visible to guests. Please register to view.)

I also think it's kinda funny when otos try to school on the sides of your aquarium. Sometimes they school, and it looks like they're on a mission to clean your tank!

Adios tropicals! I found them a good home today. They just weren't for me. The tank was pretty but I'll stick to goldies. And my four snails turned in 27 snails in 20 days (at least thats how many I found and removed before salting the tank).

they will breed if you leave them room above the water to lay their eggs...lowering the temperature,  and filling the tank higher will stop them taking over